ZM's Fletch, Vaughan & Hayley - Fletch, Vaughan & Hayley's Fact of the Day (of the Week!) - Honey Badger Week!

Episode Date: September 28, 2023

In this episode, Vaughan burrows through a week of Honey Badger Facts!Buckle up, Honey Badger don't give a... See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The ZM Podcast Network. Play ZM's Fletch, Vaughn and Hayley. Hello and welcome to Fact of the Day of the Week. In this episode, Vaughn lifts the lid on the mighty honey badger. It's time for... Fact of the Day, Day the humble, unstoppable, fearless, beautiful, really cute, extra cheeky Honey Badger. Are you going to play the original honey badger video? That guy? Yeah.

Honey badger don't give a shit. Honey badger's just doing all that wild stuff. Here he is eating a snake. So good. I mean, people have got to have something to do in their own time, and I would encourage you to see all sorts of amazing honey badger content. Aren't they super violent? No, they're just not scared of anything. Wasn't that the thing

that the honey badger was like a wild? Yeah, wild, unstoppable. The big thing is they are commonly, this isn't even, this is a sub fact. Oh my God. This is a bonus fact. I always say them, it's a whole week of this. The most fearless creature on earth, they do not know retreat. Is that the fact of the day?

No, no, no, no. This is a sub fact. We're the sub fact. We are in for it. They are generally considered by zoologists and animal experts as a fearless creature. They don't exert, they don't show fear like other animals. They're so cute. Damn cute. They're so cute.

I don't like them. They're like a South African Tasmanian devil. And you know I've got love for the Tasmanian devil. It's my favourite animal. Quite sloth-like too. So they're around eight. Yeah, they are. They do look a bit sloth. With those devil. It's my favourite animal. Quite sloth-like too. So they're around eight. Yeah, they are. They do look a bit sloth.

With those claws. Like a fast sloth. Fast sloth. A less slothful sloth. Well, today's fact that I'm going to ease you in with why it's called the honey badger. Please do. It is the honey badger. It's Latin name.

It's scientific name is Malavora capensis. Okay. Which translates to honey eater of the Cape. Now, the Cape they're talking about is South Africa. Yes. Because that was where they were first identified. Okay. They're also known in South Africa as a rattle, which is a Dutch word, they think, because

it makes a rattly sound. Does it? Yep. And it also, rattle, what was it, rattle is a Dutch word for honeycomb. Right. R-A-A-T is a Dutch word for honeycomb because they love honey more than anything else. Honey badgers.

Honey badgers have a big old sweet tooth. That's why they're called honey badgers because they get into beehives and they just like gorge themselves. Immune to bee venom. Really. Immune to bee venom. Really? Immune to bee venom. So they just eat the bees too, like they wouldn't mind? No, they'll eat the bees.

If they've got honey on them, they'll eat it. They just get in there and they just, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom. Does that spike their blood sugar levels? Or they'll have crash in the afternoon. They don't give a toot. They're a honey badger. Honey badger don't give a toot.

And they're out there and they just get in there and they'll eat anything. They're omn honey badger. Honey badger don't give a toot. And they're out there and they just get in there and they'll eat anything. They're omnivorous. So they'll eat, you know, honey. Basically, that's honey and meat for them, which sounds like a hell of a diet. What a great diet. Honey and meat?

What about honey soy chicken wings? They would absolutely love them. And they would go to no end. Honey, what about like a honey glazed fried chicken? You know, like crispy, like a little, so like a little. So they are all over Africa also. I didn't know India and the Middle East as well,

the honey badger. Okay. They're all around there, but they never made their way to Korea because if they had, they'd be in big trouble because you know the Koreans love sweet chicken. Yeah, they do. Sweet fried chicken.

They'd be in real trouble. Especially with the honey glaze. So cute glaze So cute So cute So wild They're like little hairlines Yeah They've got like a little real

Straight hairline Straight fringe with the white Did we talk about Last week the video about Stoffel Stoffel the honey badger No Okay that's everybody's homework Stoffel

We should have sold this Fact of the day Week long sponsorship To Honey Badger Saloon in Wellington Okay, that's everybody's homework. We should have sold this fact of the day week-long sponsorship to Honey Badger Saloon in Wellington. I thought you were going to play that. Is there Honey Badger Saloon in Wellington? Yeah, there is. It's a saloon?

It's a saloon, yeah. That gives me a real, like, this is a crazy place. This gives me, like, shit goes down at the Honey Badger Saloon. Cool. What happens? What's on there? Is there specialty cocktails? Hayley's after welling.

We could send her on a reconnaissance. Yeah, absolutely. I'm happy to go. Yeah, Featherston Street. Oh, I love Featherston Street. Please, please get a photo. Oh my God, look at the photo.

Oh, yeah. You look at this. Yeah, good stuff. Look at that. Oh, that's a bit of us. Get on my flight, one o'clock. Yeah, all right,

we're going down. She'll be sitting at the front. She's gold now. I'm 4A. It doesn't matter. We're down the back. I'll be down the back. I'll be down the back.

23. 23B. Like the little honey badger I am. So today's fact of the day is the honey badger, its Latin name translates to honey eater of the Cape because it loves nothing more than getting into a beehive and just gobbling up all that honey. Fact of the day,

day, day, day, day. People are learning. I love hearing when people learn from fact of the day. I just realised that my entire life, I thought a beaver and a badger were the same thing,

but I thought everything was a beaver. When you were calling them honey badgers, I imagined you were calling them honey beavers, which for some reason I was not okay with. But I'm now very okay with the honey badger. Learning. Welcome aboard. be this which for some reason i was not okay with but i'm now very okay with the honey badger learning welcome aboard today's uh honey badger fact of the day day two of honey badger week uh this is a pretty great uh fact honey badgers are part of the weasel family um So they are related to otters, ferrets, badgers, and skunks. Oh, I don't like ferrets.

No, I'm not a huge fan of ferrets. No, yuck. I've been having a good chat about ferrets lately, about pests, stoats, weasels, ferrets. Yuck. Et cetera. Get rid of all of them. Get rid of all of them out of this beautiful country of ours.

But they are of that same family. And much like skunks, can produce a smelly odour. Honey badgers. Yeah, honey badgers. From the butt. From the butt. So a skunk sprays.

They spray organic sulphur liquid, but a honey badger doesn't. It's sulphur, is it? It's a sulfury. So you end up smelling like ototorua. Yeah, like rotten eggs and spoiled food and stuff. Oh, okay, yuck. It's called a, yeah, the skunk spray is made of organic sulfur-containing files.

But honey badgers don't spray it. They don't squirt it. They literally dump a stink bomb. Oh! Like you did when you went to the shop and got a stink bomb. And set it off. They turn their, they've got glands just above their bum

under their tail and it literally turns itself inside out and goes boom. Like it prolapses. Yeah, it pops out. It pops out like a yogurt container. And it just, it's called a stink bomb Not a spray

Right Because they don't spray it They don't propel it They literally just go Just out And it just goes Right Now if you've ever been to the vet

Because your dog's had a blocked anal gland No thanks Or a vet who does one You'll know that that smell is ungodly Yeah Sounds like a reason not to get a dog actually Horrible horrible horrible, horrible. But it works in the same way, except

they can voluntarily choose to dump theirs. Now, you might be thinking, Vaughan, what do they do it for? Because I know skunks do it when they're being hunted or predators after them, or they're scared. But yesterday you told us that honey badgers are the most fearless creature in the world. Yeah. You did. Well, they do it

for a multitude of reasons. They do it to mark their territory, to almost sort of like aggressively taunt people that are hunting them. Like if a lion's hunting them, apparently it's not in a fear. It's just like, yeah, come get it. Like that. And they also believe it may, because the honey badger eats honey, loves honey so much that's where it got its name from,

honey eater of the Cape, the Cape being the South African Cape. They believe it may have a sleeping effect on bees. The sting farm. Oh, my God. They make the bees. Knocks them out. You know how you smoke out a beehive and it chills them all out and they relax. So the honey beaver can get in there and eat all the.

The honey badger. The honey badger, sorry. Please don't refer to us as a honey beaver. Sorry, so the honey beaver can get in there and eat all the... The honey badger. The honey badger, sorry. Please don't refer to us as a honey beaver. Sorry, so the honey badger can get in there and eat all the honey. Yeah. And the bees are just like, boo. Yeah. Hey, man, take my honey, man.

Mark the territory, impress fellow honey badgers because apparently the smellier the better. So a honey badger comes in and they're like, whoa. Whoa, we got a big dog in the house! Right, okay. And you know, impress predators who are hunting them to be like, oh, here, come and get some. And it has a sleepy effect on

bees. It calms them down so they're less likely to attack them whilst they are raiding there. Are you worried that you're going to run out of honey badger effects? Dude, I've got so many honey badger effects. Okay, good. It is honey badger week. I don't want us to run out of it. So much to know. It's Honey Badger week. So much to know about my ever, you know, they're

up there now with the Tasmanian Devil for me. Are they? My favourite animals. Okay. I love it. Absolute little character, little monster, little terror, little chaotic unit. So today's fact of the day is the Honey Badger, like its cousin the skunk, can produce a very very smelly liquid.

Play ZM's Fletch, Vaughn and Hayley. Hi, and welcome to Honey Badger Week for this week's Fact of the Day themed week. We've learned so much about the humble honey badger, and boy, I bet it's rocketing up everybody's charts of favourite animals. Yeah, they're pretty great. Yeah, they're pretty great.

Well, today's Fact of the day is the honey badger's skin is 6mm thick. Oh! Whoa! That is comparable to the skin of the cape buffalo, an animal that weighs 50 times more than the honey badger. Oh my god. What's a pig? I'm just trying to think of animals.

Well, I looked up human skin. The mean skin thickness of males is between 0.6 of a mil and 3 mil, so half. What about granny's skin? That's always a bit... Granny's skin's thin. Yeah, females have thinner skin than men. Oh, okay.

So the thinnest of the skin... Is that what... The thinnest of the skin on females is thicker than the male's skin is thinner skin. Thinner skin is hardest skin. Thinnest skin is hard to say. Thinnest skin. No, it's not really,

is it? Where's our thinnest skin? Is it the neck? Because I feel like my neck's aging. I don't know, but your thinnest

skin is one and a half mils, but your thickest skin is only 2.8 mils. Is that why some of our jokes far less range? Is that why some

of our personal jokes aimed at Hayley hurt her more? No, it's like funny because we're all laughing. The high-end ones. The high-end ones stay with her longer. We're just like ribbing and we're all getting it.

The light jabs don't get through. Yeah. No, it's funny. It's fine. Just do it. It's fine. It's funny. I get it.

She's having fun. She's laughing. She's laughing. I get it. She's having fun. So then when about it. She's laughing. She's laughing. I get it. She's having fun. So then when you compare that to a honey badger. Yeah, their skin is twice as thick as ours. That's insane.

So it took twice as much to get through. Terrible for tattoos and piercings. It wouldn't stick. You'd imagine the honey badger would love a tattoo. Yeah, the bad boy's a bad boy. Yeah, yeah. Tramp stamps and stuff just for a laugh. Did you have other animal thickness?

The top 10 animals with thicker skin. I'd love to. Elephants? Elephants are up there. Number 10. They've got real crusty skin, eh? Crusty as, eh? Yeah.

Why have you ridden them? Twice. Oh, what? Cancelled. Not recently. Cancelled. Twice. So, hippopotamus is on the list

Oh yeah As are honey badgers Camels have very thick skin Armadillas Of course Oh yeah Of course They're shells aren't they?

You've got to say armadilla Armadilla I don't want to hear armadillo ever said It's got to be armadilla Whale sharks have thick skin Bisons have thick skin Yeah bison Sperm whales

Rhinos Elephants And crocodiles Bisons have thick skin. Yeah, bison. Sperm whales, rhinos, elephants, and crocodiles. Bisons make great handbags. Bisons do. They do, bison leather. Yeah, yeah. Oh, my God, yeah. There's a company that does strictly bison leather bags,

and they're nice. Is that why Native American bow and arrows were like leagues ahead of other bow and arrows? Because they had to penetrate such. Because they had to penetrate the thicker skin, maybe. Maybe. And, yeah,'s the honeybird is one of the few sort of like non-pachyderm

land-based mammals on the list. Up there with camels and bisons. Thick skin. Yeah, thick skin. Do they have, is my heels on that list? So what are your heels made of? Thick. No, she's talking about the heels of her foot. Oh, right.

Okay, yeah, right. You were thinking she had heels made out of another animal. Like crocodiles or something. No, no, no. I mean my natural heels. God, they've got to be thick. Yeah. They've got cracks in them?

Oh, mate. Craters in them. You should see them after it's sanded down. Yeah. That's when she wants to actually hit them with that sanding thing. Yeah. After a sand them down. A pumice stone.

Get a pumice stone on those heels. Yeah. But also the skin is rubbery. Yeah. The honey badger's skin is rubbery and too big for them. Do you know why? So if something bites them, they can twist and turn and get out of the grip. God, they're so smart.

Yeah. So smart. So smart. So smart. And they're so smart. Yeah, so smart, so smart, so smart, so smart. And they average so much on honey badger. The average bee sting can't get through them, which is also very handy because we talked about how much they love yumming up honey straight from the hive and the bee larvae. And, yeah, so they can't get through.

They've got to sting them in a certain place to be able to get through and deposit it into a part of their body that the venom can affect them. The eyeball. The poison. So today's fact of the day here on Honey Badger Week, tune in two more to go. And this is a way. What's next week going to be? Are we going to keep theming?

Well, I don't know. We'll see. Find it organically. Today's fact of the day is honey badgers have some of the thickest skins amongst the animal kingdom. Today's week is we continue Honey Badger Week. I told you this is going to take a dark turn. And for that dark turn, I would like to turn to page

176 of the 1941 volume of Fauna of British India. Okay. We're going to make a long time. Just Fauna, not Flora. Not Flora.

It is page 176 where I will read you about Malavora indica, the Indian rattle. Now, we've talked about this. The honey badger is also known as the rattle. Yeah. Believed to be drawn both from a Dutch name for honey and also the noise it makes. Yes.

When it's, well, throughout its life. When it's happy, when it's angry, it makes a rattly noise. It goes on to say it has a tail without hair about one-fifth to one-sixth the length of the head and body. Four claws, very large. We know about this. We know what it looks like now. We've got Google.

Next page, 177. Now, this is a digital scan of the original print. So it's in that real weird oldie time font that's quite hard to read sometimes. Okay. It goes on to say about the dimensions, habits. Like most of the subfamily, the Indian rattle is exclusively nocturnal. Habits. Like most of the sub-family, the Indian rattle is exclusively nocturnal.

Not true. Okay. They didn't know Jack back then, did they? They didn't have honey badger fact of the week. They didn't have honey badger fact of the week. No, they didn't. Honey badgers are out there doing their thing all matter of times.

Throughout India, this animal has a reputation of digging into graves of men in order to feed upon the dead bodies. Honey badger? Honey badger, no. Honey badger, what are you doing? You're eating my grandy. Oh, my God.

We're doing these accents because it would have been very inappropriate for us to do Indian ones. Yeah, well. Fletch wanted to, and I told him he wasn't allowed. He did not. He did not. I did not. He did. He'll do it for you if you call up 0800-DALZ-ZM. He'll do it for you.

You can also ask for his Persian rug merchant. His rug merchant. That's a really good, that's great character work. That is phenomenal stuff. Several of the native names for the Indian rattle mean gravedigger.

Really? And also, it is the same belief in Persia with regard to the badger and in all probability

equally without at least foundation that it is true of the rattle to eat dead bodies. That's

manky. That's manky. That's a manky badger. Yeah, that's a manky badger. Naughty badger. Or cable cordonvala. Cordon. Which is a gravedigger. Okay.

I translated it. Wow. So today's segment has taken a dark twist. It really did, didn't it? But you thought this rascal was going to be with him. No, honey badger.

No. No, no, no. Who's a naughty honey badger? No. No, no, no. Who's a naughty honey badger? Also, they wouldn't do it these days because of the formaldehyde and such. Yeah. It would have been good for the honey badger. But the honey badger would just probably like eat it

and be like, that's not good. I don't feel good. And then just have a nap and wake up and be like, whoa, I won't do that again. I'm a honey badger. I'm going to do it again. I'm num num. So today's fact of the day,

in a dark turn, honey badgers in India were known to dig down into fresh graves and eat recent human remains. It's honey badger week. It really is. Fact of the day. What are we doing next week? We decided.

Well, I had somebody suggested coffee as the fact of the day. Oh, my God. I've done had somebody suggested coffee as the fact of the day. Oh, my God. I've done a lot of coffee facts previously, though. Yeah, but I'm still absolutely shocked. That instant coffee was made in Invercargill, invented in Invercargill. Unbelievable. Yeah. No, wait, did we talk about that?

That was on the podcast. Yeah, that was on the podcast. I remember swearing at you straight afterwards. Yeah, you did. Very aggressive swearing. You swore. I swore. I made some suggestions.

Quite a list of suggestions. Some very sexual suggestions to you for doubting me and my knowledge on Invercargill's history with instant coffee. Yeah. Well, it's the final of Honey Badger Week. Yeah. I'm sad, personally. Yeah, I'm sad, too. I love this little animal more at the end of it than I did at the start.

Yesterday, we talked about the thick skin of the honey badger. Yeah. Tantamount to the water buffalo. They've got the same thick skin and that's a big creature and this guy's a real little toughy. You can call them any name and they won't cry. Yeah. It just bounces straight off them.

Yeah. So I would like to talk about their bite today. Okay. The honey badger has a bite of force of 1,300 PSI. Pounds per square inch. Okay. 1,300 pounds per square inch. Trying to think, well, my bike tires are like 80.

Not that, mate. Oh, yeah, you've got really high pressure tires. Yeah. When I borrowed your bike. Thank you. Thank you. They'd need to carry that fat, jumpy ass around. Yeah. When I borrowed your bike. Thank you. Thank you. They need to carry that fat, jumpy ass around.

Gosh. No, they're Kevlar tires or some shit, right? Yeah, they're good tires. Yeah, they don't get punctures. Oh, it's good though, because you're a fluctuator, you know? Yo, yo. You've got to have anything you've got to know. Exactly. So, 1300 PSI bite force,

which is stronger than lions and tigers. Okay. Oh, my. But it's no match for the honey badger's cousin, the wolverine. Oh, wow. Are they cousins? Hugh Jackman's powerful bite is over 1,700 PSI. Yes, the wolverine and the honey badger are both of the weasel family.

Okay. But they're just way tougher than dumb ordinary weasels, ferrets and stoats. Yeah, right. But apparently somebody did message me saying, if you love the honey badger, you're going to love the wolverine. I've long loved the wolverine. Yes. But I feel like the wolverine doesn't exert as much personality as the honey badger.

No. It's very, very tough. There's no doubt about it. It's got a stronger. So you might be thinking, well, Vaughan, what is the most powerful bite in the animal kingdom? Daddy Longlegs. It's the hippopotamus.

Oh, yeah. It's mammal-wise, it's the most powerful bite. And the Wolverine is just below the hippopotamus. That's why the hippopotamus kills so many people. It's Africa's most deadly animal. Well, and Columbia's now. Oh, yeah. Oh, God. Pablo.

Pablos are out, aren't they? Yeah. Pablos. Yeah, and they're just absolutely breeding like no man's land. So, yeah, the hippopotamus, people don't see it. It's underwater. They'll step in the territory. They launch out of the water and just, boom, bite for it.

And they can open their mouth wide enough to get like a kitten. That's insane. Yeah, so they are very dangerous. So the wolverine's bite is just less than the hippopotamus and the honey badger's is a bit less than a wolverine. But a very, very powerful bite. So powerful, it can bite, I'm back on the honey badger, it can bite a turtle or a tortoise and crack open the shell.

Oh my God. Oh wow. Like open up a nut. Yeah. Or eating a muscle. Yeah. Yeah. It's eating the muscle by biting through the shell

rather than putting it on the barbecue for five minutes and just when it starts to open, just crack that open. A bit of lemon, a bit of garlic, a bit of butter, a bit of sweet chilli sauce. That's why you get a whole barbecue's worth of mussels so you can have all sorts of different things. Yeah, beautiful. And then you don't take the top of the shell open

and then you let it cool down a little bit and then you hold it up to your mouth and you go and lick it out. Lick out that green lip mussel. Do you stomp at that

thing at the supermarket that's always spraying them? No. Yuck. Nah. I don't trust that thing. We've talked about it before. Where's the salt water

coming from? It's weird. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not coming direct from the ocean to New World, is it? And it recirculates? No.

I don't know about that. Nah, proper fish shop. Okay. Yeah, right, yeah, yeah. It's not coming direct from the ocean. Is it recirculating? And it recirculates? No. I don't know about that. Nah, proper fish shop. Okay. So today's fact of the day is the honey badger's bite is one of the most powerful in the animal kingdom, but it's no match for its cousin, the wolverine. Fact of the day,

day, day, day, day. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Well, if you enjoyed that, give us a rating and review and be sure to tell your mates. You know what? I reckon your script reading is getting better. Thank you. I give it five stars. Yeah.

Just like I'd give this podcast. I'm telling my friends about your's getting better. Thank you. I think it is too. I give it five stars. Thank you. Just like I'd give this podcast. I'm telling my friends about your script reading too. Thank you. Much like I'm going to do about this podcast. Thank you, Vaughan and Hayley, for that. Good boy. ZM's Fletch, Vaughan and Hayley.